
'ublished by the Texas Land and Immigration Oo. of St. Louis, Mo. 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 

GOV. R- ""Bf ' H U B B A R D , 

OF TEXAS, 

UEI.I^'t:RET) AT THE NATIONAI. EXPOSITION, PHILADELPHIA, 
SHl'TBMBER 11, 1876. 



HER AREA. OP TERRITORY, HEALTH AND ITS EVIDENCE, 

WEALTH AND POPULATION, SCHOOL ENDOWMENTS, 

PRODUCTS, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, 

AND RESOURCES OF WEALTH. 



Mr. Prefil(le)it (iiid (Jentlernen uf the 

United States Centennial Conwiission : 

Nearly two centuries ago Sieur de La Salle, a brave aud gallant knight 
of 'France, crossed the Atlantic in sliips of war, and planted on the shores 
of the Baj' of Matagorda, in tlie wilderness of Texas, the standard of his 
king and the cross. "'' 

Searching for tlie month of the IMississippi, his sails Avere borne west- 
ward of the great river, and landing, his followers erected, from their own 
wrecked vessels, the lirst Imnian liabitations for white men ever known 
in that strange country, bordering on the land of the ancient Aztecs ami 
the Montezumas. This bold French navigator had, three years before, 
passed down the Mississippi to its mouth, and borne back to his sovereign 
the romantic story of the greatj inland water and its majestic entrance to 
the sea. 

After thirty years the colony of La Salle, through mutiny, desertion 
ahd pestilence — and at last 'by the martyrdom of their heroic leader — 
passed away to live only in the traditions of tlie centuries to follow. 

The Kingdom of Spain then succeeded to the possession, by armed 
occupation, of all that splendid empire, once under the eyes of the eagles 
of France, east of Mexico and west of the " Father of Waters.'' From 
]71i», and more than a century thereafter, Texas remamed the subject ot 
the Spanish crown, and until the revolution which severed Mexico from 
the mother country. Our history during all these years, down to the early 
part of the nineteenth century, bears no fruits of civilization, no trophies 



of war, or the arts "of peace." The only reUef to this picture, the only 
gleam of suushiue in this long and weary night, were the labors and sacri- 
fices of devoted Christian men and women, who erected temples to God in 
the solitudes of the desert, and died for the faith. The ruins of these old 
missions still stand on the banks of the San Antonio and near ancient Go- 
liad — glorious monuments of Christian lieroism of men and the pious and 
deathless fidelity of women to the cross — centuries ago. 

The shackles of Spanish and Mexican despotism, Texas, more than 
forty years ago, burst asunder, and through the blood and storm of battle 
walked forth into the light of a new day — bearing on brow and bosom the 
sears of the conflict between the oppressed and the oppressor. Since that 
day her political history is known to the elder generations of these States, 
if not to the nations of the earth as well. It was a wonderful and heroic 
history, that of a deeply wronged people struggling against the treachery 
of the knave and the tyranny of the despot— an unequal contest of fifty 
thousand against eight million of people — a contest waged by ragged sol- 
dier}"^ in poverty and hunger — poor in pm'se, but rich in valor, and a forti- 
tude and devotion which amid burning homes, rapine and plunder, was 
willing to die for their country rather than sue for dishonorable peace, or 
kiss the rod which smote them feo the earth — a contest which bore upon its 
bosom, and to the front, the great, heroic names of Houston, and Rusk, 
and Lamar, and Wharton, and Sherman, and their confreres, who, like 
Cardigaii at Balaklava, rode down to death and victory at San Jacinto. 
On that historic field — remembering Goliad and Alamo — independence 
w^as won and the "Republic of Texas" was born unto the free nations of 
the earth. 

For nearly seven years she maintained a separate nationality, and was 
so recognized by the great powers. Her struggle was not on so grand a 
theater as was that glorious seven years' revolution of our forefathers, nor 
was it illustrated by nobler fields than Bunker Hill and Saratoga or York- 
town, nor by a grander fortitude than that which stood by Washington 
and his army amid the snows of Valley Forge, stained by the blood of their 
naked feet. 

But we do glory in the fact, my countrymen, that our independence 
was achieved by no "holy alliance*' of emperors or kings, and that we 
"trod the wine-press" and won the victory alone. In the darkest hours 
of the i-evolution, France, with Lafayette, came to your aid, and her gal- 
lant soldiers followed Washington at Monmouth, at Trenton, and at York- 
town. Her ti-easures filled your scanty coffers, and her ships bore down 
to your relief through the tempests of the ocean. No foreign greeting 
came to the struggUng army of "Thirty-six," and no voice of kindly 
recognition came to us till after our conflict was ended, and the victor}' 
was won ! 

Mr. President, you have asked, and my State has commissioned me, to 
speak of our history, our present, and our hopes for the future. I would 
not be true to tliat history did 1 not i-emind you of the fiact that Texas, 
free and independent, notfroin fear or force, but because of her ancestral 
love and blood, sought a place in the American Union. She was de- 



'S 



scended from the same Euglish-speaking and liberty-loving people, and 
her struggle was for the same great principles of free government. 

As the apple of Newton, in physics, fell to the earth, so the young 
republic gravitated to the bosom of the fatherland. You purchased with 
gold, from tottering dynasties, Florida and Louisiana, out of which have 
been carved other commonwealths, now sparkling like jewels in your 
crown. 

Other nations, all along through the ages, have extended their area by 
l)loody conquests, in the eternal war of the strong upon the weak. The 
great republic did not piu'chase Texas with either gold or blood. 

It will be remembered too— it is a part of the history of those stormy 
times — that already England had proposed to become our ally, on terms 
of right royal bounty, and to protect us from the invasion of Mexico on 
the one side and the annexation to the United States on the other. Other 
great powers, whose ministers held court at our unpretending capital, 
entered with their Talleyrands and Richelieus into the artful intrjgvies ot 
'• state craft" to prevent the annexation of Texas to the Union. 

The subtle wliispers of the syren were unnoticed, and the tempting 
cup was dashed from the lips of the statesmen and the heroes of the cabi- 
net, and the congress of the republic^ 

We held high counsel together with Jackson and Tyler and Polk and 
Benton, and that great American Congress of 1844, on the one side, and 
Houston and Rusk and Kaufman and Vanzandt and Henderson, and the 
( Convention of Texas on the other. 

We became a member of the Union by a solemn national treaty, 
signed and duly attested by the great seals of State on terms and condi- 
tions selt-imposed, which can never be broken. 

Texas became more than a co-equal State, because she reserved as her 
own all her public lands, then amounting to nearlj' two hundred millions 
of acres, and the right— to be exercised at will— of dividing her territory 
Into other States for the Union ; a right— pardon a digression— which will 
never be exercised, my countrymen, until San Jacinto is forgotten, and 
the martyrdom of the Alamo fades from the memory of men. 

That annexation cost this Government nothing — Texas paid her own 
war debt, amounting to millions of money. 

It is true, war with Mexico ensued ten years after Texas had shat- 
tered her lances and routed lier legions, with the Emperor and Dictator a 
suppliant captive at her feet. 

What did that war ettect? In addition to the lustre shed upon our 
arms, it extended our possessions to the Pacific — embracing the El Dorado 
of the West — and making us indeed and in truth an " Ocean-bound 
Kepublic." 

And in addition to aU this material wealth, the annexation of Texas 
brought to the Union a history, all iUuipinated by the noblest saci-itices 
and the heroism of men wlio were willing to die for their country. 

She came bearing as precious gifts the ti'aditions of the early colonists , 
and beaiing on helmet and shield battle scars of the struggle and of the 
victories from " '24 to '36." 

She brought to you Goliad and Conception and the Alamo, and 



jjoints to the inscription on tlie monument made of the stones on which 
<Jrockett and Bowie and Travis fell as to the brazen serpent in the wilder- 
iiess : " 'J'iierinopyl;e liad her messenger of defeat, (he Alamo liad none." 
And last, but not least, she brought to you kindred blood and a great 
lieart, beating in unison with the Union, and surrendered the ensign of the 
"Lone Star." hallowed by so many thrilling memories, and took her 
place in the common Sisteihood of States. 

I come, Mr. President, a representative from one of a younger gene- 
ration of States. 

And what has struek me most in my coming has been the fact, that 
the moment I crossed the mighty stream which drains the grandest valley 
h\ the world, I seemed to step Jrom some fabled Atlantis, still girded with 
pi'imeval forests and extended plains, unto one which denotes & finished 
empire. 

Its opulent cities, its splendid liighwaj's and bright waters, were 
thronged with millions of freemen and the various and wonderful pro- 
ductions of their industry of more than an hundred years. Fi'om the 
Mississippi to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains the mai-ch of 
])rogress is grandly moving onward to the front. New towns, new cities, 
new States, are rising there like Delos from the sea. Fertile lands, rich 
mines — mocking the wealth of the Indies — underlaid by measureless fields 
of coal and iron, unnumbered herds of cattle scattered over countless 
plains, a genial clime opening to the hand of man the facile culture of all 
the products of other lands. Cotton, wheat, corn, rye, oats, rice, barley 
and sugar groio side by side on the same fertile fields. Ere anotiier centen- 
nial, this splendid trans-Mississippi empire will rival, in aljounding popula- 
tions, abundance of products, and contributions to the happiness of man, 
ail the older commonwealths of the republic. 

Of this "New West," the State I have the honor to i-epresent h(^)'e to- 
(hxy holds the far left, its proper and only ocean outlet, and k(><'ps steady 
step to the march of this imperial progress and power. 

OUR AREA OF TERRITORY. 

Texas is the largest of the American States, gi-eater ni extent than 
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and tlie 
six New England States all combined. Within her bordei-s are moi-e 
Mian one himdred and seventy-five millions of acres ot land — 274,3(31! 
sqnare miles of territory ; bounded on the north and west by the Indian 
Territory, New Mexico and Mexico, and the south and east by the Gull' 
of Mexico and Louisiana. This great area lies between the twenty-sixth 
and thirty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and its northwestern '* P;in- 
lliindle" extends even to the borderline of Kansas. 

In topography Texas is naturally divided into three parts — 

Fi/'st — The Seaboard, extending from the Sabine to the Rio Grande, 
nearly a thousand miles in length, and runinng inland from seventyfive to 
one hundred nfiles. 

Seciind—'Vhe ITplands, or Middle Texas. Tliis great belt constitutes 
the largest area of the State, liy nctiial survey of engineers, it is from five 



hundred lo ei^lit hundred feet iibovc the level oi the sea. It contains cveiy 
variety of soil, diversilied with hills and valleys, alternating forests and 
inairie, and watered by unfailing streams. 

Thh-d— The great plains, including the "Llano Estacado, " and the table 
lands, stretching far to the west and the northwest. These plains are now 
and then broken by lofty mountain ranges — on the headwaters of the Red, 
the Pc(Jos, and the Brazos rivers. 

Tlie lirst and second of these topographical classitications are unsur- 
passed lor richness and fertitity of soil and salubrity of climate. 

The third and last division is yet the home of the savage, now fast dis- 
appearing before the march of civilization ; and still further to the west, 
ward, the feeding ground of the buffalo. In this territory there is embraced 
a wider area of fertile land, with less that is unproductive, than any other 
portion of the habitable globe. 

Extending from the semi-tropical line of the Gulf to the temperate 
zone — from the region of the lemon, the citron, and the orange, on which 
frosts never fall, through rice and sugar and cotton fields, up to the Egypt 
of Texas (her great Northwest) where the cereals yield in unsurpassed 
profusion — such a country, with such a climate, bounded, by per{)etilal 
spring on the south, and by almost eternalwinterinits farthest border line, 
must be adapted to all the wants of all the kindreds and tongues on the face 
of the earth. 

•HEALTH AND ITS EVIDENCES. 
Tliere are not less than twenty thousand people who actually live and 
camp nightly on the prairies of Texas. 

When we number the stock men engaged with their hertis, the wagon 
trains always passing to market or military posts, troops on the march, 
immigrants moving, surveyors and their parties, and excursions from all 
lands, always on the wing, the estimate might be doubled without fear of 
exaggeration. In this out-door life, from the ocean to Kansas, and from 
the Sabine to the Rio Grande, I am not advised of a single case of con- 
sumption ever originating in Texas. I refer you to the Medic;d Association 
of my State, and to the concurrent testimony, gratefully rendered, of two 
million people. While we are not exempt from the "ills to which flesh is 
lieir," we have thankful pride that plague and pestilence have never yet 
desolated our homes. JHealth is almost universal throughout the State. 
We do not claim, Mr. President, that the fabled "fountain of youth" pours 
its life renewing watei's evermore amid our hills and valleys, but we do 
claim that on our soil, and in our climate, a hardy and healthful population 
abounds, and tliat oin* mortality is less than sixteen to the thousand annu- 
ally. These are the facts, and will not, and can not be gainsaid by carping- 
critics and wilful maligners of our good name. 

PRODUCTS— COTTON. 
Texas has raised this year over one-seventh of the entire cotton crop of 
the United States — over six hundred and eighty thousand bales. All na- 
tions are vitally interested in the successful culture ot cotton. Its growth 
and its uses have marked the era of our grandest civilization. 

The general government, through its agricultural bureaus, watches 
with anxious eye the rain-fall of June, and learns with dismay of the ap- 



6 

pearance of the caterpillar in July. And well may the government feel a 
deep interest in the cotton crop prospects of our Southern States. Europe 
is the chief purchaser of this great staple, and two hundred millions of 
dollars in gold is derived annually from this source alone to pay interest on 
American bonds held by European capitalists. 

Nor is this interest felt in the cotton-producing States confined to the 
American Union. Tlie failure of our crop threatens with idleness halt 
the ships of commerce, and half the inhabitants of the civilized world look 
to our cotton fields for raiment. 

Thus every consideration invests the cotton culture with absorbing in- 
terest, and every eftbrt of industry and art, to increase and seciire this 
great crop, is looked to with anxious national concern. Such is the adap- 
tation of our soil and climate to the production of cotton, i-anking in sta- 
ple the finest in the world's markets, that one-fifth ot her territory could 
produce an annual crop greater than is now gathered from all the cotton 
fields of the globe. And yet we have more than a liundred million of acres 
untouched by the plow. The time is coming, Mr. President, and that 
r'^ght rapidly, when we shall hold the balance of power lu the cotton ex- 
change of the continent, and our voice be heard throughout the world 
with respect. 

GRAIN. 

If Tbxas has demonstrated her capacity for raising all the cotton re- 
quired to supply the looms of the world, her soil and climate have not less 
conclusivelj^ shown that she can produce the cereals to feed the millions of 
the earth's inhabitants in a large degree. The grain-growing capabilities 
of Texas are just beginning to be tested. For the past few years wheat 
was only grown to meet the necessities of limited sections. In the more 
recent periods the product has been wonderfully increased, and the yield 
last year in thirteen ot the best grain-growing counties of Texas approxi- 
mated to ten millions of bushels. Heretofore wo have regarded the jrreat 
Northwestern States as the only source of supply for our bread and meat- 
stuffs. Now that we are connected by great lines of railwaj' with the 
Northwestern States, we have begun to reverse the old course of trade, and 
last year over four millions of bushels of wheat were actually shipped to 
Kansas City and St. Louis for a market. 

We are yet deficient — but will not always be so — in improved facilities 
for manufacturing flour, as compared with the great miUs of the West. 
And hence this very grain, in many instances, was re-shipped to Texas in 
the form of flour just as thousands of our hogs from the lower counties of 
the State were shipped the last winter to St. Louis to be sold to us again as 
bacon and lard. 

The area of Texas, peculiarly adapted to wheat and all the cereals, is 
larger than the great States of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana combined. 

The wheat crop of the United States in 1860 was estimated, in round 
numbers, at one hundred and seventy-three millions of bushels. Of this 
Illinois produced 24,000,000, Indiana, 17,000,000, Wisconsin, 17,000,000. 

What could Texas do if one-fifth of her wheat-growing counties (say 
sixty in number) were planted in wheat alone ? 



There arc fifty counties of the one hundred and sixty-eight or<ja!ii/;crl 
counties capable of producing twenty bushels to the acre, which is below 
the average jjroduct. 

If one-fifth of the area of these counties were planted in wheat it woulil 
yield one hundred and fifteen millions of bushels, the cash value of which 
is four times greater than the value of the cotton crop. Texas wheat, both 
in quality and excellence, is not equaled by that of the most favored grain- 
growing regions of the United States. 

Let me give you an example in point : Flour from Dallas County, 
Texas, made from this year's wheat (1876), was sold in the Galveston mar- 
ket on the 19th of May, and was from a crop yielding thirty-three bushels 
to the acre. These facts have been officially furnished to me, as also most 
valuable commercial statistics hereafter given of our trade, by the Presi- 
dent of the Chamber of Commerce of Galveston, the Hon. A. M. Hobby, 
a gentleman noted for the accuracj^ and extent of his commercial knowl- 
edge, as he is also in other walks a distinguished citizen of Texas. 

Just in proportion as the measuied bushel increases in specific gravity 
it holds a gi'cater proportion of the nutritious qualities of wheat and a less 
quantity of water, an,d the less water it contains better adapts it when 
ground into flour for shipment to warm and tropical climates. No. 3 
Texas wheat will weigh 61 pounds; No. 2, 63 to 64; and No. 1, 65 pounds 
to the bushel. These qualities of our Texas wheat are mainly due to the 
chemical peculiarities and adaptation of soil and climate to its production. 

IT IS SUPERIOR. 

JF'irs!!— Because it is dryer, more dense, and the heaviest known, con- 
taining less moisture than any wheat west of the Rocky Mountains. 

Second — Because it produces more muscle-producing qualities. 

7%M-d!— Because it reaches market from four to six weeks earlier than 
flour made elsewhere in the United States. 

In quantity the difference is not less marked. Genesee County, New 
York, from 1830 to 1848, I believe, stood first on the list. The average 
yield during that time was twenty bushels to the acre. Stark County 
Ohio, ranked second, with an average yield of eighteen bushels. The 
average yield in thirteen counties in Texas from which statistics have 
been obtained,, exhibits the following table : 

Acres. Yield per Acre. 

Wheat 301,000 241-13 

Corn 277,000 39 7-8 

Oats 93,000 56 1-6 

I have thus, Mr. President, alluded at some length to the grain-grow- 
ing capabilities ot Texas— and, particularly, of wheat, which stands first 
in the list of cereals in point of value, and as an article of food for man. 
Since its introduction as such it has kept equal pace with his civilization. 
I am not less proud, Mr. President, of the wheat and cotton-growing 
States of the Union than of their great commercial and manufacturing 
sisters. One is the indispensable complement of the other. Nine-tenths 
of the commerce of the world is embraced in the two terms — Food and 
Raiment. But among the three emblems of industry — the Plow, the 
Loom, the Anvil — the plow represents the largest interest, Thus, while I 



8 

behold with pride the States which separately contribute by the product 
of one of these to our national prosperity, I turn with not unbccomin*:!^ 
admiration to Texas, which contributes tlie products of all to the gene- 
ral weal. ' 

RAIN-FALL. 
Having referred to productiveness of soil and salubrity of climate, it 
may not be without interest to allude to the raiu-fall, without which the 
sterility of Sahara would girdle the earth Avith its burning belt of sand. 
A comparison of the rain-fall of Texas with States famed for quantity and 
certainty of yield, will show how ill-founded is the once prevalent idea that 
Texas was a land of drouth. Assuming Illinois and Missouii to be the 
mean center geographically and agriculturally of the productive regions of 
the United States, I would give the following result of rain-fall, in inclies, 
from September, 1871, to September, 1875 — a period of four years : 

states. Total luclics. Annual Average. 

Missouri (St. Louis) 157.03 39.26 

Illinois (Chicago) 126.15 31.51 

Texas (Galveston) 203.56 50.64 

In the opulent and delightful city of San Antonio, llic center of what 
has been miscalled the "dry section,"' the following results have been 
obtained from a carefully prepared table, extending over a period of six 
years' observation: Mean temperature for the seasons— sprina:, 69.14 ; 
summer, 83.56 ; autumn, 68.95; winter. 52.91; year, 68.85; mean annual 
raiu-fall (six years), 36.90. 

Italy may in vain be challenged to iirodnce so extraordinary a table of 
mean temperature, relative humidity of air and rain-fall, as is furinshed by 
this historic city of Western Texas, and which may be pronounced one of 
the healthiest cities in the world— resting like our capital on the Colorado, 
amid beautiful valleys, by crystal waters, and under the shadows of the 
mountains. 

JNTEKXAL IMPKOVEMENTS. 

Prior to the advent of the Anglo- Amen can settlers in Texas, tiie pa(.'k- 
mule furnished the only means of transportation. With their coming, hoof 
and wheel were introduced, supplanted in turn by tlie iron horse. Ln 1853 
the tirst mile of railway was constructed in the State. Under pressure 
alone of increased production nearly three thousand miles have been built, 
and are now in active operation. Texas,' I believe, to-day is the only State 
in the Union where the construction of railways has not been discon- 
tinued. In ttie extension of main trunk lines and independent roads her 
activity keeps ijace with her march of progress in every department of 
human industry. In the encouragement of works of internal improve- 
ment, in removing obstructions from her navigable rivers, in the irrigation 
of her western plains, and especially in the construction of railways, Texas 
has extended the most magnificent bounties. Though among the youngest 
of these States, she has outstripped them all in the princely gifts she has 
oflered her own and citizens of other lands to build these great public 
works. 

Within the next decade her International Railway will doubtless 
traverse the entire State to the Rio Grande— into the heart of Mexico. Her 



"Sunset" road will soon form with tlie'road from Houston to Beaumont, 
two main links between New Orleans and ]\[exico. The Texas Central, 
built by the energy of our own "railroad city of Houston, now passtes 
Ihroufrh the whole State to Red River, eoiineetino: with the Splendid sys- 
tem ot the Norttiwest. The Texas and Pacirte, fostci'ed alike by the State 
and General Government, is now completed from Louisiana to Fort Worth, 
and from Marshal via Jefferson, and through the magnificent Red River 
region of North Texas, to Shei-man in the West. 

May we not indulge the hope, ere this decade shall pass away along 
thisTrans-Continenial and Inter-Oceanic line, the commerce of the Orient 
and the Occident shall roll in wealth and splendor, making our deserts and 
wilderness blossom as the rose ? 

Texas grants, under her general railroad law, sixteen sections, oi- 
10,240 acres of land foi- every mile of road constructed and put in nnuiing 
Older, 'i'o tins date the State has doiialud, for internal improvements, as 
follows : 

No. of acres granteil to railioad companies 1!>,7!JJ,1»)(I 

No. of acres granted to rivers 4,160, isu 

No. ot acres granted 1o irrigation 107,540 



24,016,SS0 
Aggregating over twenty-tour millions of acres. In addition to all 
this munificent grant, she loaned before therecentwar, of her school fund, 
to raihvays, $1,S1.5.000. nearly two millions in gold. 'JMie consequence has 
been, while her generous bounty nmy have been now and then abused, 
these great railway lines have brought millions of wealth, hardy and in- 
dustrious populations, and extended our frontiers westward two hundred 
miles in twenty years, 

EDUCATION— FREE SCHOOLS. 

It has always been the policy of Texas to encourage a liberal system 
of education. Early in the history of the Republic, in 183fi. there was 
ample provision made for common schools and for one great State Univer- 
sity. Of our public domain there has been surveyed and set apart, more 
than a quarter of a century ago— 

For State University 221,400 acres. 

Vor each county ii^ State 17,712 •' 

We have 168 Organized counties, thus giving to the counties, lor free 
schools, over twenty millions of acres. Tlie elder counties located their 
lands j'ears ago, and they are now in the, settled section of the State, and 
worth $3.50 per acre, or $61,002 to each county. At present rates, the 
UniA'crsity lands, at the same figures, are worth the princely sum of 
$749,000. 

In addition to this, each alternate section granted to railroads is 
reserved for the school fund, and by the present constitution, one-half of 
all the public lands and one-fourth of all the general revenues are solemn- 
ly set apart for a perpetual fund for common free schools for the children 
of Texas. The mnnber of acres of our public school lands will now ap^ 



10 

proximate twenty million acres— worth over thirty millions of dollars I By 
the late Constitutional Convention of Texas there has, in addition, been 
tjranted to the University one million more of acres of tlie public lands. 
This University, we intend, sliall stand by the Harvai'ds and the Yales of 
the New, and the Trinitys and Oxfords of the Old World. 

Under wise legislation, our unrivalled school fund will furnish a basis 
for the free education of every child in Texas. She dispenses this bomity 
ill no spirit of caste, party or section. All j-aces may bring their children 
to drink at tliis fountain. Not thirty days ago the Legislature of my State, 
in addition to our public free schools, establislied by law a College for the 
colored youth of the State, and appropriated thousands of dollars for its 
perpetual endoAvment. 

HOMESTEAD EXEMPTIONS. 

The Constitution now in force exempts from forced sale a homestead 
in the country, of 200 acres, with all its improvements, and a homestead 
in cities and towns not exceeding in value five thousand dollars, at time so 
d(?signated. There is also a clause exempting current wages from garnish- 
ment — assimilating in this respect wages t'o property. Thus the wages of 
the landless laborer, living by the "sweat of his brow," and the homestead 
of the family, around which widowhood and orphanage cling in misfor- 
tune, are forever exempt from debt by the humane declaration of organic 
law. 

PUBLIC DEBT AND TAX LIMITATIONS. 

It may be asked if all the advantages that Texas otFers in cheap lands, 
variety of product, health, comfort, and law-abiding people, are not coun- 
terbalanced by heavj- taxes. The bonded tax of Texas is $4,264,717. 
The taxable property of the State in September, 1875, was $275,000,000. 
To-day it is officially estimated at $300,000,000. A tax of less than one- 
:ind a-half per cent, if levied and collected on this propertj' would extin- 
guish at once the entire debt of the State. Her credit, once tottering, now 
stands erect, the peer of any other State. The accruing interest on her 
debt is paid promptly at her treasury, and her bonds sought eagerly at 
home and abroad. With the increase of our taxable values, the fabulous 
growth of our population, with a rigid assessment and collection of the 
taxes, forcing the necessary expenditures of the government and the rev- 
enues to cancel each other, guarding against all deficits, Texas may soon 
discharge every dollar that she owes in less than the next deca^de of her 
history. p 

Our Constitution provides that "the State tax on property exclusive ol 
the tax necessary to pay the public debt shall never exceed fifty cents on 
one hundred dollars valuation, and that no citj', county or town shall levy 
more than one-half of said State tax.'' Thus for the future the State and 
county tax shall never exceed seventj^-five cents on the one hundred dol- 
lars. This wise provision restrains the State and county from imposing 
upon themselves and their posterity great public debts, crushing and to 
crush the population of generations to follow after us. 
WEALTH AND POPULATION. 

We have, sir, to-day, after so richly endowing our schools, universi- 
ties, internal improvements, and public charities and asylums, we still have 



11 



]pft unapjtropriated 7;"),000,0()0 acres of public lands. We are yet, too, only 
in the early manhood of our life ; yet we feel, Mr. President, in recountinji 
what we have in present wealth and power, your own pride and love for 
the Republic, as well as our own, will be gratilled. 

Our taxable property was in 1850, $51,000,000; in 1860, $294,000,000; 
in 1870, $174,818,986 ; in 1875, $275,000,000; in 1876, $300,000 000. 

From a cotton crop not exceeding 25,000 bales thirty years ago, Texas 
has become this day the largest cotton producing State in the IJniou', 
reaching 680,000 bales. Her annual exports of cattle are estimated at six 
millions ($6,000.000) ; wool $1,000,000; hides, $1,800,000 ; beef in barrels, 
$1..S00,000, and fruits and other exports, $3,000,000. The table I now read^ 
Mr. President, carefully collected from official data, shows what may be 
regai'ded as a startling discovery by our sister States of the Union. That 
discovery, if you please, shows Texas to be the largest producer of the 
great staple in the United States. These are the figures — full of hope and 
meaning to my State and the Union : 

lbs lint produced. Actual Acres. Actual Yield. 



States. 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

Florida 

Georgia 

L/Ouisiana 

Mississipjii 

North Carolina. 
South Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 



Total. 



Ave- 
rsige. 



143 

■250 
119 
130 
350 
165 



140 

178 
230 



187li 



138 

•248 
117 
103 
•ilS 
153 
185 
117 
178 
230 



1874-5 



137 

185 
110 
123 
199 
129 
303 
133 
100 
300 



1875-6 



1,8.50 

1,100 

325 

1,700 
1,350 
1,900 

620 
1,200 

740 
1,300, 



1874-5 



,800,000 
950,000 
230,000 
,650,000 
,1.50,000 
,880,000 
591,000 
,300,000 
700,000 
,175,000 



1875-6 



580,000 
620,000 
60,000 
400,000 
620,000 
660,000 
260,000 
320,000 
300,000 
680,000 



1874-5 



530,0(K^ 
400,000' 
55,000 
460,00(1 
.520,0<HI 
2.50,000 
373,000 
360,0(HI 
160,000 
.535,000 



140 11,885,000 11,316,000] 4,500,000 3,332,000 

Our increase in exports and imports, foreign and coastwise, is unpar- 
alleled in modern States. 

Look at Galveston alone ! Her exports in 1885 were $29,336,.52H. 
Her imports in 1875 were $35,059,570. Her imports in coffee from Brazil 
from 1871 to 1875 was $2,542,371. Since, in 1876, we have begun to shii> 
abroad grain and hogs," and our industries have so wonderfully developed, 
our imports of life-sustaining- products have fallen below our exports, and 
will so continue. What is true of Galveston, is, in the same proportion, 
true of Houston, Dallas, Jefferson, Austin, San Antonio, the great trade 
centers of Texas. 

Our growth in population has not been less wonderful than our prog- 
ress in material wealth and power. 

The population of Texas in 1850 was 212,000 ; in 1860, 600,000; in 1870, 
818,000 ; in 1876, approximating 2,000,000. 

From the official estimates of our late immigration bureau, our an- 
nual increase of population, from immigration alone, is a quarter of a 
million of people. How long will it take us to march abreast, and to the 
front even, of the great States of the Union. The gi'eat State of New 
York has about five million, and Pennsylvania three million five hundred 
thousand population. In five years we will overtake the "Old Keystone,' ' 
and in ten years stride alongside the great metropolitan Stflte of the Union ! 



13 

In the next decade we will have over six millions of inhabitants stand- 
injj sentinels v(ritliin our j<ates. To her elder sisters, wlio arc outstripped 
by us in the race, Texas shall, in that day of her power, extend her strong? 
arm and warm heart ''locking shield to shield," as our fathers did at 
Biniker Hill, Yorktown and San Jacinto ! 

MORAL ADVANCEMENT OF TEXAS. 
Ifc is with pride I announce, Mr. President, to the American people, 
that Texas is neither a penal colony nor a Botany Bay. Nowhere on this 
continent does there exist a o^reater respect lor religion and law than in 
my long abused State. 

Not only is the "schoolmaster abroad," but for forty years ol" our 
liistory the humble and faithful ministers of the cross "cried aloud in the 
wilderness" in the name of the Master. I have before me, sir, the actual 
statistics of her moral and Christian progress. All the Protestant and 
( "atholic creeds have erected there an altar to God. There are, this day, 
7(».000 Baptist communicants, 70,000 iMethodist Episcopal. 2,000 Old School 
Presbyterians, 3,000 Protestant Episcopal, 7.000 Disciples of Christ ; Cum- 
berland Presbyterian, 4,000 ; Methodist Protestant, 2,000; and there are 
also 140,000 Catholic population in Texas. There are 2.000 preachers of 
the gospel, and 50,000 Si uiday- School scholars, who, in the brightness of 
childhood, each Sabbath morning, are learning ''to remember their Cix-a- 
tor in the days of their j'outh." 

Will you tell me, sir, after this, that Texas, which has 350,000 Chris- 
tian worshippers, devoted men and pious women prayingfor her salvation, 
is not the peer of all her sisterhood in respect to divine and human lawsV 
Don't listen, mj' countrymen, to the envenomed slang of the hustuigs and 
the promptings of a blind and unforgiving- fanaticism ! Come among us, 
to our churches, to our homes, to our tire-sides, in the busy fields, on our 
exposed frontiers, anywhere, everywhere, from the palace to the cabin, 
and yoxi will return to your own gallant people, telling them that we have 
a civilization, a hospitality, and a respect for law, alike the pride and the 
glory of a connnonwealth. That we have lawless men, who now and 
then kill and murder ; that on our exposed frontiers, thinly populated, arc 
sometimes found turbulent and desperate men from the older States, is 
most true, it is an element of all new countries, and' should be, as it will 
be, throttled in due season by the moral force of the people, and sustained 
if need be by the strong arm of legislative and executive power. But 
Texas is herself loyal to law and order, extending as strong a shield and 
as safe a protection to the citizens as any other State in the wkole Ameri- 
can Union. 

PROSPECTIVE SOURCES OF WEALTH. 
I have not spoken at length of our mineral resources, of our immense 
forests, of our best lumber for commerce in the world, or that not far dis- 
tant future when the great "new \\esi,," of which St. Louis and Kansas 
City are the heart centers, shall find their nearest and most proper ocean- 
outlet through Texas seaports. We are at Galveston, Sabine Pass and 
Houston, nine hundred miles, by rail, nearer to this magnilicent grain- 
growing section of the Union than is Boston or New York. Cotton and 
sugar and grain seek the nearest routes to the sea. Why may we may not 



13 

compete for this trade? We are now grasping each other with iron hands, 
and to-daj- the trade between St. Louis, Kansas and the West, with Texas, 
is counted by millions, which was but nominal ten years ago. Wlieu the 
bai-s at Galveston shall receive, in appropriations, only " sheer justice " 
froiii the Government ; wlien ocean steamships shall, as they will, land at 
Houston, Texas ports will handle the great grain trade of the West— in 
the shipment to Europe and South America. Our iron and copper and 
coal fields will ere long yield a source of wealth rivaling Pennsylvania or 
Europe perhaps. 

EMIGRATION AND TOLERATION. 
Texas invites the emigrant to come hither, and from whatever land 
he will be met at the threshold by genial and honest welcome. Let me 
say to the young man, ancj the old man. and fair daughters of the older ^ 
States, we would not ask you to leave the aged mother who rocked yo\ir 
cradle or the riper civilization amid the holy memories of native land, but 
this we do announce, that, if you must seek in other lands fortunes and 
liome, Texas, with traditional hospitality, extends her warm grasp, with 
open doors, in advance, through one of her chosen officers of State. What 
care we for your political opinions, or under what flag have you fought ! 
Texas wants men. honest mew, with hearts and strong arms, to populate her 
wilderness and prairie, with freedom to vote or to speak, as If " native ami 
to the manor born." They shall worship God upon their coming under 
their own vine and fig-tree, and none dare to molest or make them afraid. 
Wliy, sirs, when you are told that we dislike for our Northern bretln-en to 
inunigrate hither, it is a base slander on a brave and generous people. 
Mr. President, the blood of the North and the West, as well as of tlie 
South, mingles in our veins, and was shed freely for us in our early 
.struggles. The " Fathers of Texas," the patriotic Austins, were from 
Connecticut. Our first President of the Republic was from New England ; 
Ohio sent to the struggling army of Houston in "36 a company of gallant 
soldiers; and the noblewomen of Cincinnati— God bless their daugh- 
ters !— heard our wail, and gave to the Texan army tliat historic battei-y 
of artillery known as the " Twin Sisters," whose guns thundered for lib- 
erty at San Jacinto. On the monument which stands in the vestibule of 
the capitol, made of the blood-stained stones of the Alamo, are inscribed 
a host of names of the heroic and martyred dead, who were from the 
West, and from the North, and from New England. 

Sirs, Texas will never forget these kindred memories of blood and liolj'- 
sacrifice. She is tolerant of opinion, and the same boon she asks of you 
if)v herself she concedes to others of our countrymen. We invite all peo- 
ple to come in the spirit of common brotherhood. We offer a sky as 
bri»>-ht as Italy, and a soil wliich yields fruitful harvests to the sweat of 
toil. We are larger than all France, and could make room and bread iov 
lier many millions. Massachusetts has 7,800 square miles to 500,000 peo- 
ple_l92 to the square mile. England has 50,0<i0 square miles, 21,000,000 
p(5ople— 412 to tlie square mile. Witli our agricultural capacity, and over 
274,0fl0 square miles, we can sustain a population of forty millions. Like 
our boundless plains, the heart of Texas is broad enougii and warm enough 
to wreet the connng of our own countrymen first, and afterwards the 



14 

earth's oppressed and hungry millions. Though spite and envy and false- 
hood may hawk at our progress, yet from the States of our own blessed 
fatherland, and from all kindreds and tongues, they are coming — they are 
coming — "an host which no man can number," to live and die for Texas 
and the Union — in the triumph of peace, or in the defence of her flag. 

The prophecy of Bishop Berkly, uttered more than a century ago, will 
yet be realized by our children, and Texas become the central ligure in 
rliat splendid vision of the poet : 

"Westward the coui-se ol empire takes its way: 
The foui first acts alreadj' past, 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day. 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 
NATIONAL MEMORIESr-GREAT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC. 

I have spoken imperfectly, I know, but with ardor, Mr. President, in 
behalf of my beloved State. I have designed rather to be plain and prac- 
tical, and substantiate bj' facts and figures, than to deal in glittering gene- 
ralities, or paint gaudy pictures of her wealth and material progress. In 
l)ehalf of Texas, and to crown the argument in her favor, as she confi- 
dently invokes the judgment of her peers, we say to sister States, "Go 
and see for yourselves,' ' and on yom- impartial verdict, though penned by 
hands which may have stricken us in anger in the past, will be written 
these memorable words of the Eastern queen: "The half has not been 
told." But, sir, Texas comes with patriotic pride to-day to assui-e our 
<;ountrymen that her heart beats high and loyal to the memory of oin- 
fathers of '76, and the great principles of human liberty for which they 
fought and freely oflfered their lives. One hundred years have passed since 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence stood in that old hall 
j'onder, and, in defiance of King George, proclaimed the independence of 
the Colonies of the British Crown. Their recital of the wrongs and op- 
pression of the unnatural mother countrj% and tlieir bold defiance of 
kingly power as they risked and "pledged their lives, their fortunes and 
their sacred honor," in defence of that gi'aud declaration, will live fresh 
and green in the national memory while our mountains stand, or oui* rivers 
roll down to the sea. 

It was the first time in the world's stormy history of wars and con- 
([uests, of the rise and fall of nations, that a republican system of free gov- 
ernment, recognizing that the people are the sources of all political power, 
wisely regulated by law and a written constitution, assumed form and 
shape, trom the chaos of the past. To om* fathers belongs this eternal 
honor, and to the God of Revolution the everlasting gratitude of their 
posterity. It is a fortunate and happy thought, this meeting of the "old 
tliirteen States" and theu* descendants, sprung from their fruitful loins, to 
coonnemorate their virtues and their valor, on the Centennial anniversary 
of the republic. It reminds us, my countrymen, tliat we are of common 
origin and kindred, sons ot immortal sires. That in that seven years' 
struggle, in council or field, there was no North, no South, no East, no 
West ; side by side South Carolina and Massachusetts, Georgia and New 
Y^ork, Virginia and Pennsylvania and New England marched and fought, 
naked and starving and penniless, mid storm and A\dnter, and shoulder to 
shoulder, went down to death right gladly for our native laud. 

Shall we ever barter or divide our birthright of the glorious memories 
of Bunker Hill, of Monmouth and Brandy wine, and Saratoga and Tren- 
ton, and Charleston and Yorktown? or cease to revere the memory of 
Washington, and Jefferson, and the Adamses, and Hancock and Madison, 
and Lee, and the old Continental Congress, who transmitted to us this 
great priceless inheritance ? No, sir ! They belong to no section. And 
Texas to-day, thanli God, kneels by the side of Mame and Massachusetts, 
and places with reverent and grateful hands her offering of love upon our 
country's altar. 

Mr. President, I proclaim to you in this grand presence to-day, that 
though we have had fratricidal strife, and kindred blood has met in the 



15 

shock of battle, and one-half of the Union have drained the bitter cup to 
its dregs, we ai-e nevertheless your brothers and your countrymen, and 
that "standai-d sheet" now tloating' above us is still our flag, and this 
Union one Union till the end of time ! We have had enough of war. 
enough of strife. The great mission of the republic is to cement that 
union at home by wisdom, justice and moderation, and to beam as a bea- 
con light from the shores of the new world through the night and the 
tempest to all the down-trodden nations of the earth. 

Its principles are spreading like tidal waves across the oceans and the 
continents. It has burst long ago the chains forged by the despot of 
South America, and given to France at last a stable Republic. Its influ- 
ence has brought sunshine even to the serfs of Russia, and robbed of its ter- 
rible meaning that old canon of thrones, "the king can do no wrong." It 
is heard to-day recognizing the people's rights in parliaments" and in the 
cabinets of emperors and kings, and dynasties totter and read, hke Bel- 
shazer of old, the doomed "handwriting on the wall." It may yet give 
freedom to Poland ; and Ireland, the land of the Green Shamrock, may at 
last write the epitaph of the martyred Emmet — on Erin's monument — 
above his grave. Sir, with such a mission for the republic, let us march 
forward, looking never behind us upon the son-ows and quarrels of the 
past — the mournful past of our history. 

Sir, you have been told that we are demons in hate, and gloat in the 
thought of war and blood. Men of New England — men of the great 
North ! will you believe me, when for two millions of people whom I rep- 
resent, and the whole South as well, I denounce the utterance as an inhu- 
man slander, and a damnable and unpardonable falsehood against a brave, 
and God knows, a suffering people ! Want war ! Want bloodshed ! Sirs, 
we are poor, brpken in fortune and sick at heart. Had you stood by the 
ruined hearthstones ; by the wrecks of fortune, which are scattered all 
along the shore ; had you seen, as I have seen, the wolf howling at the 
door of many a once happy home ; widowhood and orphanage starving, 
and weeping over never returning sires and sons, who fell with your hon- 
ored dead at Gettysburg and Manassas ; could you hear as I have heard, 
the throbbing ot the great universal Southern heart, throbbing for peace 
and yearning for the old and faithful love between the States ; could you 
have seen and felt and heai'd all these things, mycountrymen, you wouhi 
take me by the hand and swear that the arm thus uplifted against us, and 
the tongue which utters the great hbel on our name, should wither at the 
socket and become palsied forever at the root ! 1 repeat again, "let our 
spears be turned into pruning hooks and our swords beat into plough- 
shares," to remain everlasting memorials of returning peace and good will 
to the American people. 

With each returning spring let us scatter flowers over the resting- 
place alike of the Federal and Confederate dead, as we enshrine with im- 
mortelles of memory your Sumner and Thomas, and McPherson, with our 
Sidney Johnson, Stonewall Jackson and the great Lee forever. Let uni- 
versal amnesty crown the closing of the century. Our brothers died not 
in vain in the last great struggle. Standing long ago in the capitol 
of Texas, with my oath to support the constitution fresh upon my lips, 1 
uttered these words, and from a full heart 1 repeat them here to-day : 
"They died not in vain," and whether wearing the gray or wearing the 
blue, their lives were offered freely, like libations of water, for what each 
dying soldier deemed for right and for native land. In their graves, made 
immortal by the same ancestral heroism of race and of blood, let ua bury 
the feuds of that stormy hour of our history. In this generous and 
knightly spirit, Texas to-day sends fraternal greeting to all States of rlie 
Union. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 648 362 8 



PRESENTED BY THE 



Texas Laod & Immiption Compaof 

Which was organized under the laws of the State of IMissoiiri, 
with a large capital, aud to continue for the period of fifty 
years, for the purpose of procuring and assisting settlers for 
Texas Lands ; to sell and exchange Kailway and Individual 
liands in Texas ; to sell City and County Bonds and other 
securities of Texas ; to colonize Vacant Lands and organize 
Colonies throughout the United States aud Europe, aud in all 
cases to protect the Immigrant tind assist liiju in all (leNire<l 
information regarding Texas. 

The following well-known merchants and business men con- 
stitute the Officers and Board of Directors of this (-ompauy: 

B. GRATZ BROWN, President, late Uuited states Senator and Kx-(;ov- 

ernor of Missoiu-i. 
JAS. B. PRICE, Vice President, Jefferson City, ISfo. 
L££ R. SHRYOCK, Vice President and Manager Texas Department, al 

j\\is1i)i, Texa^J, 6t Slnyo(tk-it liowhiiid, lateJ'rest. Si. l.ouis lUl. ol' I'latlc 
P. H. "WOODWORTH. Secretary, and Alauagei- of St. J.ouis Ortire. 
SAM'J> M. DODD, of Dodd, lUown & Co., VVli.desale Diy Goods. 
A. V. SHA1'L,K1GH, of A. F. Shapleigli & Co., Wholesale Hardware. 
W. C. OKR, of Orr & Lindsley, Wholesale Boots aud Shoes. 
J.VS. K. SIIOKB, of .Shovb & Bolaud, Wholesale Books aud Stidionery. 
•lAMKS CJTjARIv, of James Clark & Co., Wholesale Leather, Hides and Fimling;. 
HENRY OVKRSXOLZ, Mayor of the City of St. J^ouis. 
A. A. MI'XUKR, Whole.sale Drugs and Medicines. 
ANDREW J. DOKN, State Treasurer, Austin, Texas. 
W. W. I.ANG, Grand Master of the State Grau.ge, Milam, Texas. 
RODNEY D. WELLS, of Rodney D. Wells & Co., Wholesale (^ueensware, St. Loui.^. 

JS@^ We liave millions of acres of Land for sale in v^arious 
portions of Texas, and arc not <>onf]ned to any part of the 
State. Address 

F. H. WOODWORTH, 

Secretary Texas l^and aud Imuiigratiou Co., 

ST. LOUl.S, MO. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 648 362 8 # 



